Dead Celebrity Sunday
…. on Wednesday!
Yeah, yeah, I’ve been a slacker.
(86) classy, long-legged, graceful Texas beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. Charisse’s fame came from the Technicolor musicals of the ’40s and ’50s. Classically trained, she could dance anything, from a pas de deux in Ziegfeld Follies (1946) to the lowdown Mickey Spillane satire in The Band Wagon (1953; with Astaire). She also forged a popular song-and-dance partnership on TV and in nightclub appearances with her husband of 60 years, singer Tony Martin. She is shown above in Singin’ in the Rain (1952; with Kelly), Band Wagon, Silk Stockings (1957), her Broadway debut in the musical Grand Hotel (1991), and in a recent public appearance. Charisse died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California on June 17, 2008.
(71) stand-up comedian, a counterculture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words. Known for his provocative material, Carlin won status as an anti-Establishment icon in the ’70s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine called “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.” A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of the routine ultimately reached the US Supreme Court, which ruled that the words cited in Carlin’s routine were indecent and that the government’s broadcast regulator could ban them from being aired at times when children might be listening. Carlin had a history of heart and drug-dependency problems. He died of heart failure after being hospitalized earlier in the afternoon for chest pains, in Santa Monica, California on June 22, 2008.
(52) oldest African elephant in an American zoo. Petal, who usually slept standing up, was found lying in her stall by Philadelphia Zoo staff. Veterinarians were called immediately, but Petal died about two hours later. A video monitoring system showed that her right rear leg buckled suddenly, causing her to collapse. Petal had lived most of her life at the Philadelphia Zoo and had been in excellent health, showing no recent signs of illness or decline. She died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 9, 2008.
Words and pictures from Life in Legacy
